Air India and IHG Launch a New Loyalty Partnership
A new loyalty partnership connects Air India’s frequent travellers with IHG’s hotel network.
Air India and IHG Hotels & Resorts have announced a loyalty partnership linking the airline and hotel group more closely for frequent travellers.
Announced on September 4, 2026, the agreement connects two large travel ecosystems at a time when international travel to and from India continues to expand.
Air and hotel loyalty move closer together
Partnerships between airlines and hotel groups can make a trip more valuable to members by creating reciprocal earning or recognition opportunities across different parts of the journey. They also give travel brands access to overlapping but not identical customer bases.
For IHG, India is a major growth market across several hotel segments. For Air India, partnerships formed during its continuing transformation can broaden the utility of its loyalty proposition beyond flights alone.
Travellers should still compare the specific earning and redemption terms before changing booking behaviour, but the agreement is strategically significant because of the scale of both companies’ expansion ambitions.
Source: official announcement.